Sunday, 19 September 2010

A Barn Swallow family (2)

The little swallows grew very fast. I went to see them every couple of days. Within a few days, their feathers were beginning to sprout, actually they were starting to show the appearance of the adult swallow by the end of the week.

But they were as noisy as ever. I guess the competition for food made them aggressively loud. It was so fascinating to watch.

Feeding a family of 4 swallows was no easy task. The parents came back and forth with delicious insects every few minutes in the summer heat (usually over 30 degree C) . Unlike the Red-whiskered Bulbul, the swallow is one of the very few birds which is able to feed in mid air. So the feeding is very quick and usually takes a few seconds. It is ever so difficult to capture especially when the lighting is not ideal. Anyway, I managed to get several poor quality photos.